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Video Testimonials

Workshops, Seminars and Speaking

Stuart Cross delivers workshops, seminars and keynote that are interactive and tailored specifically to your needs. By understanding your objectives for the session, by interviewing participants beforehand and by involving your people directly in the workshop we are able to deliver a programme that delivers great results for your organisation.

We offer workshops and keynotes on three topics:

How To Avoid A Strategy That Sits On The Shelf: Don’t Let Planning Kill Strategy

What is the reaction of your team when they hear the phrase ‘strategic planning?’ Are they energised by the chance to create exciting new opportunities for future profit growth? Or are they depressed by the thought of endless form-filling, requests for further information, and periodic fights to protect their budgets?

If you chose the latter option you are not alone. In a survey by the consulting firm McKinsey, only 40 percent of senior executives thought that their strategic planning process was useful, and less than a quarter of them agreed that they made major strategic decisions during the process.

In this highly interactive session Stuart Cross shows you how to avoid this trap. Stuart demonstrates how you can create a strategy that will influence everyday decisions across your business, inspire your managers and your people, and deliver dramatic, profitable growth. You will never again have a strategy that just sits on the shelf. Specific benefits include:

Specific strategy development tools to apply immediately

How to separate strategy from planning

How to translate high-level strategy into on-the-ground success

“I am writing to give you some feedback on the impact you have had on the Avon Kazakhstan management team following our attendance at your Strategy Development workshop. After the session with you I felt reassured about the importance of strategic planning and thinking and received helpful tools and approaches to create a strategy for our market. Back in Kazakhstan we used the tools within a very creative and successful process that resulted in a strategy we all believe in. Thank you for providing us with practical and useful approaches that we could implement in real life!”

Olga Zonova National Sales Manager
Avon Cosmetics, Kazakhstan

“I’ve worked with Stuart many times and found him extremely knowledgable about his subject – strategic thinking. He comes across as a really good guy, helpful, honest and open in sharing his experiences and very engaging with a very diverse group of delegates. Stuart has the gift of simplifying and removing the mystery around strategy and shares with delegates a wide range of practical tools.”

Steve Alexander Lead Consultant
The Mentor Group

Creating A High-Growth Business: Be Truly Distinctive, Not Customer-Led

Growth is imperative for longer-term value creation. Every company that delivers outstanding shareholder value has established and executed a high-growth strategy.

Cutting costs and improving efficiency can only help businesses drive profits so far and growth should be at the heart of all companies’ strategies. Yet, in many cases, businesses step back from a focus on growth, preferring to allocate scarce resources to operating and back-office improvements.

Stuart Cross shows you what it takes to put growth firmly at the heart of your organisation’s agenda. Using examples from around the world and from his own experience as a consultant to world-class companies, Stuart provides provocative insights and practical tools to help you drive the top and bottom line of your business. Specific benefits include:

How to build the three pillars of a high-growth business

Avoiding the customer-led limitations which impede innovation

Specific tools to generate new ideas and innovations to drive the growth of your business

“Your combination of intellectual wisdom and common sense business savvy struck exactly the right note. I very much hope you can join us again in the future.”

Keith Harrison Special Professor
Nottingham University Business School

Effective Decision-Making: From The Facts Of The Matter To The Heart Of The Matter

Many companies are seeking to devolve decision-making to the front-line as a way of driving accountability and pace. But the evidence demonstrates that the results of this devolution are, at best, mixed. Unclear accountabilities, incomplete information and sub-optimal decision-making processes make effective decision-making a hope rather than a promise.

Stuart Cross explains how you can embed effective decision-making across your organisation. Using his own executive and consulting experience and examples from across the world, he demonstrates how both organisational processes and individual capabilities can be combined to drive pace, agility and much, much better decisions to your business. Specific benefits include:

Specific decision-making tools to apply immediately

How to be more effective by making fewer decisions

Understanding how clearer accountabilities drive better decisions

“Stuart recently ran a Strategy session for the Family Business Futures Academy. The session, aimed at family business owners, was perfectly pitched at people who know their business intimately, but who need some assistance in turning their insights into a coherent strategy, capable of coordinated action and effective communication throughout their business. Stuart judged the attendees superbly and discussed a set of processes and tools that would help any of the owners put together a strategy that would be relevant to their customers, different from their competitors and commercially successful. The session was interspersed with relevant examples and well led discussions. All the participants left with a sense of momentum and excitement about their future plans for their business.”

“The students were impressed by how much they learned and really enjoyed the session – it was clear that your presentation had exceeded their expectations. I hope you won’t mind my inviting you back in the future.”

Rhian Silvestro Associate Professor and Head of Operations Management Group
Warwick Business School

To find out more contact Stuart by clicking here or call +44-(0)1636-526111.